Save dough when you take tires to a recycling event on Camano and Whidbey Islands.
It usually costs $7.50 for each tire taken to an Island County Solid Waste Transfer Station, but Saturday, if the tire is off the rim, it’s only $2.25. It’s $4 for each tire and rim.
“We accept only passenger car and small truck tires, and they have to be relatively clean,” said Scott Chase, Island County Shore Stewards coordinator. “We ask that anybody with 100 or more contact us first. This event is aimed at folks who live in Island County.”
The phone number is 360-240-5558.
Deliver tires from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. behind CASA Animal Shelter, 160 Can Ku Road on Camano Island or at the Island County Solid Waste Complex, 20062 Highway 20, Coupeville. WSU Waste Wise coordinator for Island County, Janet Hall, will be on hand in Coupeville.
The Island County Health Department supports the effort, Chase says, because a puddle in a backyard tire offers a breeding ground for mosquitoes. WSU Waste Wise, WSU Beach Watchers and Project Serve will send volunteers to help out.
“We often have folks come with truckloads or multiple carloads of tires,” Chase says. “One woman had tears in her eyes, as she told us how they came to check out their vacant property and found that someone had dumped hundreds of tires since the last time they were there.”
And where do old tires go? Chase says either they are ground up to make other products, like road surfacing, or are used for fuel.
In the tire world, old is good. They will happily accept classics.
Two years ago, some tires from an old Packard finally made their way from someone’s garage to the recycling bin.
Folks seem to enjoy shopping just down the road where they expect to find homemade products, organic foods and offbeat entertainment.
There has been no such market in the Granite Falls area.
Until now.
Vendors are signing up for booth space at a “Saturday Open-Air Market on Getchell” that plans to open June 13 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays at the corner of Getchell Road and 84th Street NE in Granite Falls.
Manager Hope Lervik says they have commitments from a USDA beef and lamb seller, someone selling handmade textiles and crafts, folks offering canned and baked goods, fresh herbs, vegetables and flowers.
For more information, go to www.MarketOnGetchell.com.
“As we’ve driven around it’s been easy to see that the uneasy economy is on our neighbors minds,” Lervik says. “There are more signs out at farms and homes advertising produce, flowers, crafts and other things for sale.”
The idea is for everyone to come together one day a week, she says, to a central meeting spot with great visibility and a festive atmosphere, where people are more likely to stop, browse and buy.
“This way people get to know their neighbors and meet the farmers who’re growing the food. Farmers markets also give local shoppers an alternative to big grocery stores where the produce is generally days, if not weeks old and has been transported thousands of miles to the table.”
They like the motto — “Buy Close By.”
Robe Valley is a small community up the Mountain Loop Highway, just east of Granite Falls.
They have a small volunteer fire department.
Leslie Kari reports that neighbor Anne Femrite was helped by the fire department.
She wanted to do something nice for them.
Femrite, an excellent gardener, grows fuchsias and will sell them to benefit firefighters, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at Red Apple, 115 N. Granite Ave., in Granite Falls.
Mom might like to receive a hanging basket on Sunday.
Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451, oharran@heraldnet.com.
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